Luke Willson hopes to remain with Seahawks but 'we'll see'

Luke Willson of the Seattle Seahawks celebrates after catching a touchdown pass against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi's Stadium on January 1, 2017 in Santa Clara, California. (Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. – In five seasons in the NFL, Seattle Seahawks tight end Luke Willson has been to the Super Bowl four times.

The first two years as a player, the last two as a member of the media.

Specifically, as a Canadian TV interviewer – a year ago with TSN, this week with Sportsnet. Willson hails from LaSalle, a town tucked against the Detroit River immediately south of Windsor, Ont.

In an interview, Willson said he misses coming to the Super Bowl as a player.

“You realize how hard it is,” he said, “and how lucky I was to make it this far my first two years in the league. It’s quite a task.”

The 28-year-old has started 37 times in a 72-game career in Seattle, and has caught 11 touchdown passes, including a career-high four this past season, in backing up Jimmy Graham.

When his rookie contract expired last March, Willson said he wanted to remain in Seattle, and did, but on a one-year, $1.8-million ‘prove it’ contract.

Did he prove it?

“For me personally, there was some good, some bad,” the Rice University grad said. “I’m happy with the type of play I was putting on film, but we’ll see how that transpires in free agency.”

If things work out, Willson said he’d like to remain in Seattle.

“Yeah. Honestly, Seattle’s like a home to me now. I love the fans, love the atmosphere, love how it’s so close to Vancouver.

“But you know, you learn. It’s a business. I learned that through the first round of free agency last year. And we’ll see. When I left (at season’s end) I thought I was in pretty good standing with management, if you will. But that doesn’t mean much until there’s something concrete.”

Although the Seahawks finished with a winning record in 2017, at 9-7, they missed the playoffs for the first time since 2011. Once again, key injuries played a large role. There seemed to be even more internal bickering that spilled out publicly, too.

“We obviously didn’t have the season we expected,” Willson said. “We had a bit of the injury bug. But I mean, we beat the Eagles late in the year. And look where they are.”

Was the bickering a natural function of a once young, great team that has matured, diluted and become frustrated?

“I don’t know if I would say that. I think a lot of it was we just weren’t playing well,” Willson said. “Winning cures all things. A lot of guys felt we should have been winning more games. And even the games we were winning, they didn’t really feel great all the time.

“We had a few real close ones where I thought we should have been in there and really handled business. And we just seemed to be inconsistent. I don’t think guys were mad at each other. They were just mad that we, as a team, weren’t really playing well, and sometimes that comes out.”

As for his role with Sportsnet this week?

“I’m kind of here more for a comedic sense. My questions have been pretty far-fetched … kind of outlandish,” Willson said.

“For me personally, I don’t mind the analysis and stuff like that. As far as asking players, I really don’t know how much information I’m going to get. We all give the political answer.

“I’ve got my go-to football answers that I can give, especially after you lose, or win. It’s easier to kind of pinpoint why you win, but if we lose I just kind of give the same answer in different words, every time.”

Appreciate the honesty, Luke.

BREVITY BILL

Hoody McGrumpypants sure knows how to open a Super Bowl news conference.

More sullen-faced than usual on Tuesday morning, New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was asked if he coaches to win, or to avoid losing. Or something like that.

Replied Mr. Helpful: “Yeah, we always play to win.”

Nnnnnext.

BREVITY BILL II

Asked Monday at media night if he’d seen posted excerpts to Facebook of Tom Brady’s coming documentary on his life at home, Belichick said, killer-faced: “No, I don’t have SnapFace.”

THE PATRIOT WAY

New England wide receiver Danny Amendola was asked Monday at media night to describe what the Patriot Way means.

Neither the Patriots nor the Philadelphia Eagles has practised here yet. Both clubs are handling Super Bowl week as they would a normal Sunday game week. That is, by not practising Monday or Tuesday, then practising hard Wednesday and Thursday, with a lighter physical workload on Friday, and a mere walk-through on Saturday.

Reporters are not permitted to watch Super Bowl practices, other than one pool reporter assigned by the Professional Football Writers Association to each team’s practice.

If anything newsworthy occurs at the practices, we’ll keep you informed.

EXTRA POINTS

Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh will provide analysis pre-game, at halftime and post-game on NBC’s coverage Sunday of Super Bowl LII … Shaquem Griffin, the University of Central Florida special-teams standout and weakside linebacker whose birth defect required his left hand be amputated at age four, has been invited to the NFL scouting combine at the end of February … Carolina C Ryan Kalil will retire after the 2018 season, his 12th in the NFL, according to Joe Person of the Charlotte Observer.

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